DISCOVER

NOP is a group of people interested in exploring digital interfaces to develop and question « New Orchestra Practices ». NOP’s main goals are to bring together various audiences, artistic practices and cultures to experiment innovative ways of playing sound and visuals elements collectively. Most of the projects involved artists and performers but also amateurs. The NOP founders are French but most of the projects have been based in New Zealand.

Joystick Orchestra

Playing together is a key component for NOP. From May 2011 to November 2012, seven people from different background gathered together to create the Auckland Joystick Orchestra. The conductor Nolwenn Hugain-Lacire, taught them how to use their instrument, the josytick, and together they learnt how to play and improvise together.

Original creationsK by Stuart GrimshawDOT by Andrew McMillan and Sean Kerr (creation suported by Creative New Zealand)Impro in collaboration with Kim Newall

Partners
French Embassy in New Zealand
Friendship Fund Between France and New Zealand
Paris City Council
French Ministry for Youth
Creative New Zealand
PUCE MUSE

Interactive Installation JeuPlay

Inviting the audience in an unique collective and artistic experience is JeuPlay’s aim. Jeu Play is an interactive digital art and music installation which the audience has open access to explore, perform and interact with. The work invites the audience to play with surprising instruments and discovering a colourful universe of immersive sound.

This interactive installation is the result of a collaboration between the creative collective Interrupt and NOP.

Original creationsInterACTION by Angus WoodhamsYeuCann by Brooke Mitchell

Background

Nolwenn Hugain-Lacire worked for four years for the music centre PUCE MUSE in Paris. After developing with them a specific approach of digital music through the use of game interfaces as joysticks, she decided to continue this journey within another culture. In 2010 she created the association NOP (New Orchestra Practices) and moved to New Zealand.

NOP’s main goals is to bring together various audiences, artistic practices and cultures to develop and question « New Orchestra Practices ».Bringing together audiences
Playing is the core aspect of NOP projects; it is predominantly in amateur practices. The wide range of people and skills to be involved in NOP projects enriches the orchestra. No speciﬁc knowledge is required to be part of this adventure. NOP projects follow two main lines : the game and the gesture.Bringing together artistic practices
NOP projects are ﬁrst and foremost interested in projects involving sound and image, which artistic association is very nourishing. The very diverse links between sound and image encourage players to use their visual and hearing sensations to reveal their perception and build a new instrumental relationship.The video technology has introduced a clear and strong connection between sound and image. New technologies (NTIC) have made this connection even simpler. However, many ﬁelds have not been explored yet.Bringing together cultures
NOP projects are based on a cultural encounter between France and other countries. France is the culture where the NOP association have been established. Visiting other countries with NOP concepts creates an opportunity to share and create original repertoire for this new ways of playing together.

Joystick Orchestra

Interactive Installation JeuPlay

Background

PLAY

Discovering by doing and learning by playing are key for NOP. NOP PLAY is a hands-on art experience reflecting NOP’s aims. Click below and explore an audio-visual experience that turns your computer keyboard and web browser into a playful artistic interface.

Play

About

NOP PLAY is an original collaboration associating visual artist Kim Newall, composer Barnaby Flavell-Chitty, interactive designer Jeffrey Nusz and producers Nolwenn Lacire and Anna Jackson, with the support of the Auckland Council Creative Communities Scheme.

Jefferey Nusz | Interactive designer

Jeff is a developer, interactive artist and game designer. His training in traditional programming techniques and background in the visual arts has led to a career of collaborations with graphic designers, film directors, musicians, and fine artists. He is lead developer at Assembly where some recent works includes the V Motion Project; a Kinect-hack on a major scale that culminated in a public performance where a dancer’s movements created live music and massive visual spectacle. Take a Flight through Middle Earth is a dreamy multi-user web experience for Tourism New Zealand where users guide a flock of birds to paint dramatic landscapes and zoom into miniature worlds on their quest to Lonely Mountain. The Samsung Virtual Line was a 50 meter long LED screen in Auckland’s Aotea Square visualising life-sized contestants jostling for position in the online competition

Barnaby Flavell-Chitty | Composer

Barnaby Flavell-Chitty is a composer-producer based out of Auckland, New Zealand. A recent graduate from Auckland University’s School of Music, he has a strong interest in video games and game music. Work can be found on soundclound.

Kim Newall | Visual artist

Kim has been part of the New Zealand VJ scene since the late 90s. His practice shifts between high-tech and low-tech approaches, combining them to produce creative works ranging from live visual performances to public interactive works. He has produced live visual performances for music festivals and events such as ‘Splore’ and the ‘Big Day Out’. From drawing through to Interactive installations, Kim’s combined use of traditional and new media have seen him produce robotic creatures out of cardboard for ‘Evolutionary Experiments’ (MIC, 2009) and virtual birds occupying urban spaces in ‘Roosting’ (THE EDGE, 2010) and ‘Urban Life’ (Lorne Street, 2008).

Nolwenn Lacire | NOP Director and NOP PLAY Producer

Nolwenn studied music and visual art in French and Icelandic art schools. She is interested in relationships between sound and image in new media art and has a strong focus on interactive practices and audience involvement. During her collaboration with PUCE MUSE in France, she developed and conducted electronic orchestras as a new way to collectively approach art through digital media. Nolwenn moved to New Zealand in 2011 to continue to develop these activities within a different culture through her project NOP “New Orchestra Practices”. Since May 2011, she has also been the programme developer for the interactive art programme Digital Art Live supported by Auckland Live and Colab/AUT University.

Anna Jackson | Producer

Anna Jackson is a media researcher and transmedia producer. She is the founder and co-director of Transmedia NZ, an organisation that seeks to promote the development of transmedia and other innovative media production practices in New Zealand, co-producer of online documentary initiative, Loading Docs and a blogger for The Big Idea. Anna recently completed a joint PhD at The University of Melbourne and the University of Auckland on innovation and change in New Zealand’s documentary production ecology.